The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969) (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Review)
Directed By: Jess Franco
STARRING: Christopher Lee, Richard Greene, Tsai Chin
Rated: UR/Region O/1:67/4K (2160p)/Number of Discs 2
Available from Blue Underground
“There is no need for panic, gentlemen… unless I succeed.”
– Dr. Fu Manchu, saying what everyone watching this movie is also thinking
There are bad movies, and then there’s The Castle of Fu Manchu—a film so bafflingly sluggish, so determinedly incoherent, and yet so oddly mesmerizing that it achieves a kind of deranged brilliance. This was the final installment in Christopher Lee’s six-film run as the devilish Dr. Fu Manchu, and it limps across the finish line like a wheezing supervillain dragging a broken death ray made from cardboard.
That said… I loved every disjointed, recycled, ill-lit minute of it.
Let’s try to piece this plot together shall we?
Fu Manchu, now holed up in a castle somewhere in Istanbul (played by a random castle in Spain), has developed a new doomsday device—a machine that uses ice to destroy entire cities by freezing their water supplies. (Yes, really.) The film opens with stock footage of the Titanic sinking—borrowed, without irony, from A Night to Remember (1958)—to show the destructive power of this ice weapon.
The mad doctor’s goal? World domination, of course. But this time he’s holding the world’s shipping lanes hostage with his new climate-disrupting tech, threatening to bring global commerce to its knees.
Standing in his way (barely) is Nayland Smith (Richard Greene, looking like he’d rather be anywhere else) and Dr. Petrie, who spend much of the runtime wandering through endless corridors, occasionally muttering about the obvious.
There’s also a drug-addicted heart surgeon, a romantic subplot that dies of boredom on-screen, and a cast of secondary characters who drift in and out of the film like ghosts in search of a plot. Oh, and did I mention Fu Manchu’s castle is also a heroin lab? Of course it is.
Christopher Lee, still somehow dignified despite the nonsense swirling around him, is the film’s anchor. While his Fu Manchu remains a problematic portrayal steeped in outdated stereotypes, Lee’s calm menace lends the movie whatever credibility it has. Even when delivering lines like, “With my power, the world shall be mine… in ice!”, he does so like he’s narrating a Shakespearean tragedy.
Tsai Chin returns as Lin Tang, Fu’s psychopathic daughter, and she remains one of the most delightfully evil elements in the series. She has more charisma in a sneer than most of the cast combined.
Richard Greene, as Nayland Smith, just looks tired. Like, deeply tired. As though each scene is filmed seconds after being roused from a nap.
Rosalba Neri (a welcome Eurocult staple) shows up to look fantastic and barely be involved, and that’s about as deep as the bench goes.
Let’s talk about the elephant in the screening room: Why in God’s name did someone restore The Castle of Fu Manchu in 4K? The answer, it turns out, is because physical media lovers are maniacs and preservationists are heroes.
Released by Blue Underground, this 4K UHD is less a restoration and more a resurrection. And like any good resurrection, it brings back both the good and the grotesque. This is the best The Castle of Fu Manchu has ever looked. Which is a little like saying it’s the most appetizing gas station hot dog you’ve ever eaten. All jokes aside, this Blue Underground and I don’t think they have ever released a bad 4K of anything.
Extras
Disc 1 (4K UHD Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:
- NEW! Audio Commentary with Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth
- International Trailer
Disc 2 (Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:
- NEW! Audio Commentary with Film Historians Nathaniel Thompson and Troy Howarth
- The Fall of Fu Manchu – Interviews with Director Jess Franco, Producer Harry Alan Towers, and Stars Christopher Lee & Tsai Chin
- NEW! Castle of Carnage – Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of “Murderous Passions: The Delirious Cinema of Jesus Franco”
- International Trailer
- NEWLY EXPANDED! Poster & Still Gallery
- NEW! RiffTrax Edition – THE CASTLE OF FU MANCHU Riffed by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett & Kevin Murphy (75 Mins.)
